Tribes Agree To Stay Of Ongoing Lawsuit

The Fort Peck Tribes released a statement Sept. 3 explaining a stay of the civil lawsuit filed by the Tribes against BP Construction. The Tribal Executive Board agreed to a stay of the civil lawsuit against BP on Aug. 26. According to the statement, the stay was requested by BP’s legal counsel to protect the contractor’s Fifth Amendment rights during an ongoing federal investigation into the matter.

TEB members reached for comment at press time referred the Northern Plains Independent to the Sept. 3 statement, which said, “The Tribal Executive Board will respectfully decline to make any further formal comments regarding the contract dispute with BP Construction while the federal investigation of the civil suit is pending to guard the integrity of both the investigation and the lawsuit.”

According to the statement of facts filed by defendant Bill Prichard’s attorneys Aug. 27, the civil case is a breach of contract action being brought by the Tribes against Prichard for the construction of an 80 x 120 foot steel building on the Fort Peck Reservation.

The statement continued: “As the Defendant Bill Prichard is presumably a ’target’ in this ongoing criminal investigation, his attorneys have declined to allow Special Agent Wood or AUSA Weldon to conduct an interview of Mr. Prichard. Based on information and belief, however, it is the undersigned attorney’s understanding that these federal agents have been conducting interviews with other individuals on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, and that criminal indictments may be issued in the very near future.”